'Dragon Ball Z' voice actor tells us how the series became a pop culture phenomenon

"Dragon Ball Z" was something of a pop culture phenomenon —
created in 1989 and brought to the US in 1996, the anime series
(and its accompanying animated movies) about a group of warriors
defending the earth from various strange and powerful threats was
a watershed moment for the rising popularity of Japanese
animation in America.

Thanks to its syndication on channels like Cartoon Network and
The WB, along with immensely popular (albeit scattershot) home
video releases, "Dragon Ball Z" became an entire generation's
introduction to anime.

It's also in the middle of a huge revival in fan interest — last
year marked the series' 25th anniversary, and also saw the
premiere of "Dragon
Ball Z: Battle of Gods," the first new project with a
story by creator Akira Toriyama in 18 years. This year, the
"Dragon Ball Z" revival continues with "Resurrection
F," a second film that revisits what fans consider one of the
best stories from the original series.

"We were shocked. That movie took us by
surprise," says Christopher Sabat, a veteran voice actor famous
for his role as the English voice of fan-favorite characters
Vegeta and Piccolo across various English dubs, remasters, and
video games over the past fifteen years. "All of last year and 'Battle of the Gods'
was a blur, it was so new to us — we knew it was important, but
it was very difficult to wrap our head around exactly what was
happening."

Sabat has been involved with
all things "Dragon Ball Z" since 1999, when American distributor
Funimation committed to building its own in-house voice cast
after an initial mid-90s attempt to bring the series to American
audiences failed to garner interest.

"When I
first started working on 'Z' — this was in the late '90s — a lot
of us were just mystified as to what we were even working
on," Sabat told Tech Insider. "We weren't even a hundred percent
sure what it is that 'Dragon Ball Z' was going to become. And
then we started going to conventions, and there was this giant
fan outpouring — I'd never been to a convention before — and we
suddenly realized that there was this giant fan base for
it."

According to Sabat, these new movies — the first
in almost two decades — are coming at a perfect time, one where
fan conventions are more popular than they've ever been and anime
is far more accessible thanks to popular streaming services like
Hulu
and more specialty platforms like Crunchyroll.

Sabat
also plays fan-favorite character Piccolo
(right)Funimation

"It's all at its
absolute peak. Con culture is growing, so many people are going
to conventions and they don't even have to be super fans to go —
they know the name Comic-Con and they're like, 'I'm gonna go
check one of those things out.' I'm
meeting so many people who loved this show
many years ago. I was just [at] Tampa Bay Comic-Con over the
weekend, and somebody brought me an action figure that I had
signed thirteen years ago. And I resigned it in gold and said
'Come back in 2028!'"

To Sabat, that's one of the most rewarding parts of being
involved in bringing "Dragon Ball Z" to America — seeing the way
the show has inspired its many fans as they grew up.

"It's so heartwarming to hear them tell you
stories about them running home from school every day," says
Sabat. "Or how it inspired them to get through kidney dialysis,
or how they're a black belt in karate. It's incredible, none of
us ever knew that it'd be anything like this."

"Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection F" is currently in
theaters for a limited theatrical release August 4-12.